An Offering to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada on the occasion of his Disappearance Day on behalf of the Child Protection Office – North America.

Dearest Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept our obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace.

Thank you for being the father, grandfather, and guru that we all need.

Thank you for the immense sacrifices you made and the hard work that you put in to create this society of devotees. Serving your mission is easy and blissful due to the beauty, wonder, and sweetness of Krishna consciousness. We feel your love in so many ways, most notably through your devotees. Simultaneously, serving this mission can be quite difficult and painful because of the deeply entrenched conditioning so many of us have.
This year commemorates the 25th anniversary of ISKCON’s Child Protection Office. The establishment of this office was necessary due to the abuse of Vaisnava children experienced by members of ISKCON. Although good policy is in place as ISKCON law, the path to consistent implementation has been challenging. A lack of organization and cooperation plagues our efforts to ensure the protection of children and is standard in how we operate.  Missteps regularly surface, while the children bear the brunt of our shortcomings.

The precious souls taking shelter of this movement from childhood rely on us to remedy the problems to avoid Vaisnava aparadha in the form of child abuse. As we aspire to rectify this social ill, your words resound in our ears and hearts with integrity, truth, and compassion.

Your example is our guiding light. Your clear and unequivocal teaching that children must be protected compels us forward, bringing hope that we can get this right.